The Thousands

Simple as this: if you loved the original Predator, you’ll love Predators. Producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimród Antal understand what McG didn’t in Terminator Salvation : don’t f!#k with a movie that worked.

So forget all those "versus" films; forget Babe 2: Predator In The City. Predators shamelessly reworks the original, and it’s lots of fun. A mixed bag of elite killers are picked off in a jungle cat-and-mouse game set to Alan Silvestri’s familiar, sinister musical motifs. Conveniently, the requisite hot Latino chick (Alice Braga) has read Arnie’s original 1987 "debrief". Adrien Brody covers himself with mud and shouts at his attacker, "I’m here, do it, kill me now!" The Predator even rips out a dude’s spine and skull, then roars in triumph while squatting as if about to poo. Man, it ticks all the boxes.

It’s entertaining, suspenseful stuff, elegantly filmed; the Predator-vs-samurai duel is really something. Brody tries really, really hard to be an action hero, but can’t resist the Christian Bale Method of speaking in a growly voice. But Laurence Fishburne is brilliantly nutty, channelling Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. Like Rodriguez, he totally gets the kind of film this is.